January 26, 2009

Ray Gun Patriarchy

Readers may recall Theo Hobson’s rather colourful assertions regarding James Bond. Among them, his belief that the implausibly competent fictional spy is

a deeply malign cultural presence. He represents a nasty, cowardly part of us that ought to have been killed off long ago.

And that,

Bond is a big factor in the sexual malfunction of our times; the difficulty we have finding life-long partners, and the normalisation of pornography.

Yesterday, one of Hobson’s Guardian colleagues turned her righteous disapproval to the subject of science fiction and its

paucity of simple respect and human understanding.

A paucity demonstrated by the genre’s alleged inability to

create women who are not token geishas (or, given the genre, wild assassin women, escaping court hookers or muscly babes in bronze breastplates), non-white characters who are not noble magical heathens with psychic abilities and a strong connection to the earth, or perverted gay interplanetary warlords.

“Perverted gay interplanetary warlords” sounds promising and readers may wish to Google further and report back with their discoveries. However, the claim that the world of science fiction is inordinately populated by “homophobic white male straight writers” and “woman-hating racists” – none of whom are named - sits uneasily with the author’s admission that science fiction fandom is noted for its breadth and inclusivity and a propensity for discussing “sex, race, whatever.” Nor is it entirely consonant with her own extended list of suitably inclusive authors. Indeed, so extensive is this list, and so numerous are the writers and characters unfairly omitted from it, one might suppose the author of this article is intent on disproving her own premise. (One might even wonder if the real objection here is that some science fiction doesn’t yet comply with how she feels it ought to be. Which seems rather at odds with the title of her article, Planet Diversity.) The author also concedes that the popular series Battlestar Galactica is actually rather good, not least because its most interesting characters come in various ages, shapes and colours and are very often female. We are, however, told that for every BSG - or Buffy, or Voyager, or Firefly, or Alien - there’s

a homosocial all-male fantasy fest like the film Dark Knight.

Well, I too was disappointed by Chris Nolan’s overpraised, overlong Batman sequel and its glib ambiguities, but its grievous status as a “homosocial all-male fantasy fest” somehow escaped my notice. I shall, of course, try harder to detect such things in future. After all, the forces of patriarchal oppression are everywhere and eternal vigilance is required:

We should take it as given that sex, race and sexuality bigotry manifest in cultural works just as they do in society. Outrage against such bigotry is met with bafflement by apolitical people who simply don’t get what the big issue is and are too lazy and complacent to fight the status quo.

The animated, nay heroic, author of this article is Bidisha, a woman so unassuming she declares only one name and describes herself as “a non-white angry political female.” She also defines racism as, exclusively, “despising non-whites.” So no bigotry there. Those who’ve followed Bidisha’s penetrating insights will surely recall her no less remarkable assertions regarding the sexualisation of the Olympics and its “brutalising” and “devastating” effects on the male psyche.

I think female readers outnumber males in most literary genres and I vaguely recall a survey, which I can’t find online, suggesting the percentage of female readers of science fiction is around 52%. Presumably, Bidisha thinks this female majority is repeatedly buying books they don’t wish to read.

I suspect that like too many outside critics, this woman's primary exposure to science fiction is some old Star Trek reruns, one showing of The Phantom Menace, and a reading of Joanna Russ's "How to Suppress Women's Writing" back in college.

I suspect Bidisha would like every single science fiction product to feature the prescribed menu of characters in the approved ratios, all of whom being suitably empowered, until they reflect exactly her own selfless preference. Anything else would be “complacent” or “apolitical” or positively heinous.

Anna,

“I Googled ‘perverted gay interplanetary warlord’ and the first thing that came up was this place.”

I assume that, by Hope Murless, she means Hope Mirrlees. Mirrlees's best known book, "Lud-in-the-Mist", is well worth seeking out.

David:

"I suspect Bidisha would like every single science fiction product to feature the prescribed menu of characters in the approved ratios, all of whom being suitably empowered, until they reflect exactly her own selfless preference. Anything else would be “complacent” or “apolitical” or positively heinous."

That does, indeed, seem to characterise Bidisha and her argument, pretty accurately. But the question is, will achieving this result have the desired effect of stopping:

“I refuse to get wound up over nothing. I must be ‘too lazy and complacent to fight the status quo’.”

Given Bidisha’s feeble and self-refuting argument, I doubt she’s being entirely honest with her readers. I suspect the objective is to be *seen* being loudly “outraged” by something, regardless of how absurd that something happens to be. However inept the actual argument, the display of indignation is enough, as it draws attention to the lava of righteousness coursing through her veins, and thereby to her superiority over the likes of thee and me.

"This is another one of those bizarre Bidisha articles where she bemoans the lack of apples and oranges on the shelf, and then regales us with a long list of the different apples and oranges on the shelf… I think the real problem is that Bidisha won't be happy until the entire world precisely reflects her own exact worldview. Rather than championing Planet Diversity, she's really only interested in Planet Bidisha."

Those are Bidisha’s examples, supposedly indicating misogyny and racism respectively. I don’t know much about Buffy, but if Batman qualifies as science fiction, it’s an odd example to pick, given the comics’ gallery of improbably resourceful female characters.

Bidisha! That sounds like a GREAT name for a super heroine! An alien (non-White) who is a reformed assassin hooker who escaped from court and now wears a bronze breastplate while using her magical earth powers to fight crime! Little girls will see her as a role model! It will be great!

Bidisha! [jazz hands] evidently hasn't bothered to think through her own thesis. Samuel Delany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_R._Delany is easily findable in Wikipedia, and is a successful SF author without meeting any of her stereotypes. Massive silliness. But, as pointed out before, even silly people get columns in the Guardian, which is, unknown to its writers, a source of comic relief to many of its readers, see, e.g. http://notebuyer.livejournal.com/241278.html this.

I was wondering why Bidesh! thought the Olympics had been sexualized when I clicked that link. Good God David, include a warning. After viewing her picture I realized that compared to Bidesha! virtually any adult could be viewed as sexualized since they no longer resemble 14 year old adolescents.

Don't get me started on those Perverted gay interplanetary warlords coming to our planet and stealing our jobs and (wo)min, getting their gender-realignment treatment free on the N.H.S., playing their weird music in London Underground stations and blocking the pavement outside 'language' schools during their 'fag' breaks...
A blast from a particle beam weapon's to good for 'em...
I had that William Gibson in the cab the other day...

The "perverted gay interplanetary warlord" could only be Baron Harkonen of the Dune trilogy, which, I believe, makes him exceptional rather than some sort of a stereotype. The "geisha" must be - only could be - Inara of the Firefly/Serenity stories, which, again, makes her something different, if not extraordinary. In short, I'm thinking Bidisha! (Jazz Hands!) has disproved her thesis by her own examples.

But then, I'm an Age of Reason throwback. I never got to The Age of Enlightenment, much less the current Age of Endarkenment.

“The ‘geisha’ must be - only could be - Inara of the Firefly/Serenity stories, which, again, makes her something different, if not extraordinary. In short, I’m thinking Bidisha! (Jazz Hands!) has disproved her thesis by her own examples.”

It wouldn’t be the first time. And, yes, Inara is the only courtesan or “geisha” I could think of in mainstream science fiction. Naturally, her character confounded expectations and, like all of Firefly’s female characters, she proved handy in a jam. Hardly the most obvious victim of patriarchal oppression, unless of course you’re *determined* to see everything through that lens. Bidisha! (Jazz hands!)™ exists on the same plane of moral fatuousness as Zohra Moosa and Laurie Penny, whose articles suggest the assimilation of opinions wholesale rather than autonomous thinking:

"She is now a regular contributor to Newsnight Review, Front Row and Saturday Review as well as guest presenting for The World Service books show, The Word, and various other TV and radio assignments. She is also a regular contributor to the Guardian and the Observer."